I wanted to start a discussion and ask whether as of late, nVidia and ATi have done anything great to PC gaming? I mean in terms of promotion and all the hit and criticism that PC gaming has had over the years. We are now seeing the PC gaming moving towards the snooze fest MMO field.

Have they(nVidia and ATi) done much to improve the state of PC gaming?
I don't think so. Why? Because they don't seem to sell their cards at affordable price. The ones that are affordable, are the ones that play crap at high resolution.

My forecast about DX11 is exactly the same as DX10, no one is going to give a s**** about it. Sure you will get indie developers making game engine blah blah blah however, PC will continue to get crummy ports which all PC gamers will get is better resolution which is hardly worth blowing 500+ dollars after a GPU. We all remember the DX10 Bullocks yea? The fact of the matter is DX10 was nothing more than marketing Bull. Its a copy of DX9 nothing more nothing less. IT didn't improve the efficiency of coding nor did it improve the quality of the graphics significantly.

Looking at lifespan of the 360/PS3 my guess is until 2015 and even after then we will get ports. PC gaming is being watered down so much that the game developers are selling for masses.

nVidia and ATi are hardly doing much to improve the situation. Just have a look at Chris Taylor he is making an RTS for freaking consoles for * sake.And there is the retarded PC gaming alliance which is practically living in dreamland atm.

I wouldn't say DX11 is like DX10. I'm quite enjoying the benefits DX11 brings to the table. As for not being affordable; ATi are amazing value. When was the last time you could get a high-end card for just over £200??

DX 11 is shaping up to be DX10 part 2. Luckily Windows 7 isn't Vista II.

Selling a few thousand ports to the PC crowd has gotten popular.

Its not ATI or Nvidia's fault. Game devs are greedy scumbags and they'd rather put out a console game for $60.

+1

The ATI cards are priced reasonably, keep in mind these are enthusiast cards. I'd even consider a 5850 an enthusiast card. The thing many fail to realize is that most games out there run fine on a GTX 260 or even a AMD 4870. Seriously. You don't need these new cards to run most games out there that are popular. Most games are still DX9, which is the best DX9 still to this date. These expensive cards are for people that want to run at high framerates, at high resolutions with lots of details turned up.

The ATI cards are priced reasonably, keep in mind these are enthusiast cards. I'd even consider a 5850 an enthusiast card. The thing many fail to realize is that most games out there run fine on a GTX 260 or even a AMD 4870. Seriously. You don't need these new cards to run most games out there that are popular. Most games are still DX9, which is the best DX9 still to this date. These expensive cards for people that want to run at high framerates, at high resolutions with lots of details turned up.

This is totally true.

Now @ Trancelover...

I think it's unfair that you criticize Nvidia and ATI for being too expensive. The thing you fail to realize is that GPU's are unbelievably more complex than they used to be, even just 6 to 8 years back. There was a day when GPU's didn't require anything more than a small heatsink for cooling. Nowadays, a lot of GPU's have cooling solutions that cover the entire card. Do you think that's by mistake? It's called progress and pushing the envelope of what's physically possible. Just 10 years ago, they were still developing the core technology of GPUs, but now that the technology is firmly cemented in the industry, we now have absolute powerhouse GPUs that are capable of way more than just producing pretty images on a screen.

I don't want to hear about overpriced video cards either. The consumer choses to pay those prices. There are cheaper cards on the market... You can get a DX11 part from ATI for $50, which is the price of a new video game. It's not going to be even remotely comparable to a card that costs $400, but it will do what it's supposed to do. Also, just a few years back, I remember when the Geforce 8800 GTX first hit the market. I snaged one for $600. 3 months ago, I picked up a Radeon HD 5870 for just under $400. To put it in perspective, the Radeon HD 5870 is well over twice as powerful as the 8800 GTX. Of course, ATI is still making a profit from consumers at this pricepoint, but so what? They made a great product, and they deserve to make a buck or two. They can't give these cards away for free... that defeats the point of a free market economy.

Bottom line: If you don't like what GPU companies like Nvidia and ATI are doing, don't buy their products. However, blaming them for the lull in the gaming market is bull****. That's the developers' faults. Nvidia and ATI are giving them the tools they need. If anything, the developers just aren't using them.

I hate tools that don't know what the hell they're talking about.
/rant

I think it's unfair that you criticize Nvidia and ATI for being too expensive. The thing you fail to realize is that GPU's are unbelievably more complex than they used to be, even just 6 to 8 years back. There was a day when GPU's didn't require anything more than a small heatsink for cooling. Nowadays, a lot of GPU's have cooling solutions that cover the entire card. Do you think that's by mistake? It's called progress and pushing the envelope of what's physically possible. Just 10 years ago, they were still developing the core technology of GPUs, but now that the technology is firmly cemented in the industry, we now have absolute powerhouse GPUs that are capable of way more than just producing pretty images on a screen.

I don't want to hear about overpriced video cards either. The consumer choses to pay those prices. There are cheaper cards on the market... You can get a DX11 part from ATI for $50, which is the price of a new video game. It's not going to be even remotely comparable to a card that costs $400, but it will do what it's supposed to do. Also, just a few years back, I remember when the Geforce 8800 GTX first hit the market. I snaged one for $600. 3 months ago, I picked up a Radeon HD 5870 for just under $400. To put it in perspective, the Radeon HD 5870 is well over twice as powerful as the 8800 GTX. Of course, ATI is still making a profit from consumers at this pricepoint, but so what? They made a great product, and they deserve to make a buck or two. They can't give these cards away for free... that defeats the point of a free market economy.

Bottom line: If you don't like what GPU companies like Nvidia and ATI are doing, don't buy their products. However, blaming them for the lull in the gaming market is bull****. That's the developers' faults. Nvidia and ATI are giving them the tools they need. If anything, the developers just aren't using them.

I hate tools that don't know what the hell they're talking about.
/rant